“Oh yeah?” Ray wondered, looking between Caleb and Derek. “And what were you two gonna do? ‘Charge in’ professionally or some crap?”

  There wasn’t time to argue. Caleb highly doubted these men could be trusted. In fact, he was certain they couldn’t. But they were potentially useful if they could be used the right way. “You’ve got nine other people?”

  “Yeah,” Ray growled, shooting a furious glance at Jake. “Nine.”

  “Radio your people,” Caleb told him. “Tell them channel 12.4.”

  “Radio don’t work,” Jake said.

  Well, that was a good sign. “It does,” Caleb told him. “The towers up there are just scrambling everything except that channel. Repeat it three times. The comms inside won’t pick up anything on 12.4, I blacked it out before I left.”

  Derek peered at him, and Caleb felt the accusation in his eyes. He could deal with that later if he needed to, though. “Do it.”

  Jake tugged his radio up, squeezed it, and spoke into it. “It’s Jake. Change to channel twelve point four. Repeat, twelve point four. That’s twelve point four. Over.”

  Once he was done, he held the radio near his face and clicked a button on the side. A second later, someone’s voice came over. “Gun,” a man said. “Thought we was going black ops here.”

  “Tell them to circle around to the south side of the base,” Caleb said. “All but one team; leave them on the north entrance. They’re going to meet you about fifty yards that direction”—he pointed south, away from the base—“there’s a small outcrop. Hunker down there and wait. I’ll signal you when it’s safe to come up.”

  Ray gave a snort. “You ain’t been out in one of these storms yet, have you?”

  Caleb hadn’t, and didn’t like the tone in Ray’s voice. “Why?”

  “Mother—Mister,” he said, eyeing Caleb’s rifle, “it’ll rain for days. It’s acid rain. A little bit’s a bad rash. Traveling in it? It’s a death sentence.”

  Caleb swallowed.

  “Ain’t nowhere close to get out of it,” Ray continued. “Hike down the mountain back east, maybe, and if you make it past the wind and lightning, and aren’t too burnt up, maybe you find a house that’s got a roof that’ll hold up. Maybe not.”

  Derek breathed out a curse.

  Caleb exhaled and glanced toward the base entrance, then his watch. 20:58. He couldn’t wait any longer. “So, the only place to keep out of the weather is the base.” Exactly what the woman on the mountain claimed earlier, but Caleb hadn’t believed it. She wasn’t from around here, didn’t claim to have experience with the rain. He’d assumed it would quit soon. That they could weather it with a coat and a hood. But did Lana and Elizabeth even have a hood?

  He thought about Maria, but the research facility was out of the question. If Maria was even alive at this point, the air quality would be barely passable for two people. It wouldn’t work. Not without new filters which were inside the base.

  His thoughts raced to piece together something—anything—that resembled a reasonable strategy. He didn’t have one. And he was out of time. He turned back to Ray. “Get your people to the outcrop. I’ll give you the signal. Follow orders, do what I tell you. Work with me, and we might be able to clear the base if we’re smart about it.”

  “F— you,” Ray drawled, chortling as he shook his head. “This is my operation, you fu—“

  Caleb lowered his rifle to the man’s face and looked to Jake. “If I blow Ray’s head off, Jake, will you take orders?”

  Jake sat frozen for several seconds, then nodded.

  Caleb tilted his head at Ray. “So?”

  Lightning flashed. Thunder cracked. Ray’s mouth was twisted into a fury. But he turned his head and spat. “Sure thing.”

  “Good.” Caleb stood. “Get moving. There are survivors from the group you sent to get murdered in the woods further down. They’ll head this way. Don’t shoot them.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Ray grumbled as he stood as well and brushed himself off.

  Caleb signaled Derek to go ahead of him. He spared Jake and Ray a final glance as they made their way toward the entrance, his body tensing when he saw Ray dip to pick up his rifle. But the two men turned away from them and headed away.

  “He’s gonna screw us,” Derek warned.

  “Yeah,” Caleb agreed as he knelt by a tree and raised the rifle scope up to peer through it, using the strobing lightning in the clouds above to get a clear shot as Derek lined up his. “Probably.”

  Caleb’s watch gave a single beep. 2100 hours.

  He and Derek squeezed their triggers at the same time, just as one of the guards raised a radio to his mouth.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ELIZABETH

  Horse Creek Base, New United States

  Friday, June 18th, 8:50 pm EST

  Elizabeth padded along behind Lana and the large blue plastic barrel Lana pushed ahead of them. She inhaled and tried to count to three. Only made it to one and a half before breathing out and sucking in another tortured breath. At this rate, she’d hyperventilate before they even made it down the hall.

  Her fingers shook. Sweat slicked her brow. She gasped for air.

  Lana glanced back at her. “It’s just ahead.” She paused, frowning. “Mom?”

  All Elizabeth could do was nod erratically and wave her daughter on, hoping she got the message. If she tried to speak, it was going to come out in a wail. We’re going to die. Lana’s going to die in front of me.

  “Mom,” Lana whispered, as she let go of the wastewater barrel and took Elizabeth’s hands. “I need you to be strong for me.”

  Elizabeth shook her head. “I… I’m sorry, I can’t. I can’t, Lana, we’re going—“

  Lana pulled her into a hug, wrapping her arms so tight, Elizabeth could barely breathe. She returned the embrace, smothering a wave of agonizing fear threatening to burst from her throat.

  “Ten minutes,” Lana said into her hair, softer than a whisper. “Can you just… just pretend, for ten minutes, that we’re invincible? That we have nothing to be afraid of? Something. Anything. Ten minutes, Mom, that’s all we need.”

  Ten minutes. Invincible for ten minutes. Can I do that? She nodded. “I’ll try.”

  Lana kissed her cheek. “You and me, we're gonna kick some butt. No one will know what hit them. And when we tell Dad about it, he’s gonna tell you that you’re amazing, and—as gross as it is to think about—he’s gonna want some time alone with you afterward.”

  At that, Elizabeth nearly laughed. “I, ah… I won’t tell him you said that.” Lana began to pull away, but Elizabeth held on. “I know there’s no time, but… I love you, okay? More than you can possibly know. No matter what’s going on, and whether you can talk to me about it, or if you think it’s too much, or you feel like you…”

  She stopped the ramble and managed a small smile. “Even in the moments that you’re not sure you can love yourself enough, you need to know that I do. That I always will. Your father, too.”

  Lana blinked hard, nostrils flaring as she sucked in a breath. “Yeah, Mom. I know. I love you, too. Ready?”

  She wasn’t, not really—there was no being ready for something like this. Not when Lana thought it was dangerous enough that they needed to be armed. But she followed her anyway, to the end of the hall and then around the corner, where two guards leaned against the wall near the door to the elevator.

  The entryway was a small space, only wide enough for the two of them to squeeze around the edge of the barrel. As soon as they came into view, both guards pushed off the wall and shifted their rifles into a ready position.

  Elizabeth felt small and weak. No match for a pair of guards with rifles.

  “Need to haul the wastewater out,” Lana said easily, as if she’d done this a hundred times before. “Weather’s getting bad up there, and I might not get another chance if it’s gonna pour for the next three days.”

  The guard to the left of the door shared a look with his partner, then smirked. “Oh, yeah?” He eyed the barrel. “Looks about half full.”

  “The other barrel is completely full,” Lana shot back. “Full of some nasty slop. Like everything you washed down the shower drain last night.” She made a lewd gesture at her hip, in view of the guard on the right. “So let us dump this one and then we’ll be back with the next one, so you and your buddies can tend to your needs in the shower instead of into your mom’s old socks.”

  Elizabeth knew her daughter was trying to leverage a rapport with the men, but her cheeks heated to hear Lana talk like that. Where had she even learned it? Not from Caleb. Probably from Derek. One more reason we absolutely must get out of this place.

  She cleared her throat. “Lana—language, please. Sorry, boys.”

  The guard on the left shook his head slowly. “It’s alright, Missus Machert. For the record, I don’t use my mom’s socks. I use Gunderson’s.”

  Gunderson must have been the guard on the right because he winced at the comment. “Screw you, Rhodes.”

  “Right.” Rhodes raised his rifle and leveled it at Lana. “And I guess screw both of you, because the general just put an APB out on your lovely behinds.”

  Whatever bravery Elizabeth had mustered vanished in an instant.

  Lana eyed the two men and their weapons. “O-kay… any idea why? I’ve been scrubbing toilets all evening.”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Gunderson sounded smug. “General says you’re in custody. That’s all we need to know.”

  Lana’s hand moved to the small of her back.

  Rhodes’ eyes narrowed. His rifle came up and he dipped his head to eye the sights.

  “No!” Elizabeth screamed the word and Rhodes twisted in her direction. She watched in horror as Lana tore the handgun free from behind her back and fired.

  Rhodes stumbled back and hit the elevator door. His finger squeezed the trigger too late, sending a round skittering wide to scrape across the concrete wall as he began to fall.

  Lana kicked the barrel at Gunderson. It struck him, toppled sideways, and spilled foul liquid. The smell hit Elizabeth instantly, but she only registered it as a distant sensation, something coming from far away.

  Lana surged forward. Gunderson lifted his rifle. Instead of firing, he snapped the butt of it forward. Lana moved so fast and so smoothly that Elizabeth almost missed it. One moment Lana twisted and brought an arm up, almost facing Elizabeth, and in the next, Gunderson was on the ground on his back, gasping for air as Lana choked him with the strap of his own rifle.

  “Lana?” The word came out of Elizabeth’s mouth, she knew, but it seemed like someone else said it.

  Lana took one hand away from the strap, her remaining fist clenched tight around it, and pulled a knife from her boot.

  “No—“ Elizabeth cried. She jerked forward to grab Lana’s arm, or tackle her, or she didn’t even know, she couldn’t let Lana…

  A high-pitched whine filled Elizabeth’s ears. Her vision tunneled. She gasped for air, like before, eyes wide.

  She can’t… She can’t…

  Lana jerked her knife to one side, and the guard shuddered and began to choke. As she stood her arm, neck, face—almost the entire left side of her body—were coated in arterial blood. Oh, no.

  Elizabeth stood motionless. Frozen in panic and fear and horror over what her daughter did. What she had to do.

  Lana stood over the guard, watching him die as he gasped, thick wet breaths and exhaled muddy coughs. It only lasted a few seconds, his hand clawing at his ruined throat as if he could stem the bleeding.

  Lana stared at him, eyes wide. Tears ran down her face, pale but for the dead man’s blood. Her nostrils flared and her lower lip quivered.

  “Lana,” Elizabeth breathed. Her daughter didn’t respond. Behind them, the rapid cadence of boots on concrete echoed up the hallway. The noise jump-started Elizabeth’s brain. Her vision cleared. The ringing receded.

  They were going to be caught.

  She needed to protect her daughter. Elizabeth grabbed Lana by the arm and tugged. “Lana.”

  Her daughter snapped toward her. Her eyes cleared. Whatever was there, it fled her daughter’s eyes as if she physically pushed it down.

  “I’m okay.” Lana lifted her free hand to her face to wipe blood from her eyes before yanking the keycard from her pocket. “What’s the time?”

  Elizabeth looked at her watch. “21:01.” They were late. “Go, go.”

  Lana rushed to the elevator and swiped the card over the keypad. “Come on, come on…”

  One of the radios on the guards hissed. A voice came over it. “Whiskey, Golf, Tang—“

  There was a burst of static, and then quiet.

  Lana stared at the silent radio. “Was that…” She swallowed hard. “Was that some kind of security code?” She cursed. “We’re so close, just—“

  “Lana? Liz?”

  Elizabeth felt the world drop out from under her, and then catch her safely again. Her stomach swarmed with butterflies so hard that she barked a laugh and grabbed the radio. “Caleb? Caleb! We’re here—the elevator won’t open, we’re stuck.”

  “Try now,” he radioed back.

  Lana did, quickly, and the doors slid open with a soft groan of old metal. The inner door opened next, revealing the empty inside of the freight elevator.

  “We’re in,” Lana shouted, and reached for Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth took her hand, still clutching the radio. The doors closed just as the first of the general’s men rounded the corner. The elevator lurched upward. She pressed the radio to her lips. “We’re… we’re on the way. We’re coming up.”

  She took a shuddering breath and sagged into Lana’s arms. They were all right. They were going to be all right.

  She began to smile when the elevator suddenly seized, shaking violently to a stop. Lana and Elizabeth fell back against the wall as the light went out, plunging them into darkness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CALEB

  Horse Creek Base, New United States

  Friday, June 18th, 9:00 pm EST

  The guards fell, one like a stone, one in a slow-motion slide. Caleb dashed from his cover and sprinted to the door of the base. One of the two men was still alive when Caleb closed the distance and reached for his sidearm—intent to slow down the inevitable. Derek slammed the butt of his rifle on the soldier’s temple. If the blow didn’t kill him, he would be unconscious as he bled out.

  Fighting cold panic, Caleb grabbed the radio from the ground near the door as he told Derek to find a key card.

  “Lana?” he called over the radio. “Liz?”

  There was an awful silence in response that seemed to stretch out infinitely as he closed his eyes tight and willed one of them to answer.

  “Caleb?” Liz’s voice came from the radio, loosening the painful knot that had wound around his heart. “Caleb! We’re here—the elevator won’t open, we’re stuck.”

  He snapped at Derek, waving his hand until the private pulled something from the unconscious guard’s pocket and pressed it into his palm. Flat, plastic. The key card. He stood and swiped it over the pad too quickly, then again, slower. It gave a satisfied beep.

  He tugged the door open and rushed into the dimly lit foyer where the elevator’s upper door stood closed. He slapped the key against the inner security pad next to it and brought the radio up at the same moment. “Try now!”

  There was another awful silence, this one longer, but at least less crushing than the first. “We’re… we’re on the way. We’re coming up.”

  “Are they in?” Derek asked from the door.

  Caleb nodded and waved him forward. “Come on—get out of the rain. Anything we can do about securing this door? Just in case?”

  Derek hurried to the keypad on the inside of the room. “The key card might lock it. But that could trap us in here.”

  It was a good point, and one that Caleb should have considered. He was scattered. Distracted. A dangerous combination.

  How could he keep them all safe from the rain? If only—

  The light cut out. The quiet grinding of the elevator stopped—a sound Caleb hadn’t even noticed until it quit.

  Derek pressed his back to the wall by the door. “They cut the power.”

  How long had it been? Thirty seconds? The elevator didn’t take much longer than that to reach the surface. It was potentially just below them.

  Liz’s voice came over the radio. “Caleb! Caleb, can you hear me?”

  “I’m here.” He motioned to Derek. “Help me get the doors open.”

  Derek pushed his rifle around to his back and hustled to join Caleb at the door.

  There was a hatch in the ceiling of the elevator. He’d seen it each time he’d taken it up to the surface and made a point of remembering. It would be too high for his wife or daughter to reach, but if one of them gave the other a knee to stand on, they could make it.

  Caleb relayed his plan to his wife. “Let me know if the elevator changes direction. Look for the hatch on the ceiling. You or Lana boost the other up if you can’t reach. Then climb out. Got that?”

  “Copy that, Dad,” Lana answered.

  Derek tugged a knife free and slid it into the crack between the elevator doors. With a grunt, he levered it open enough to get their fingers in. Caleb pulled with all his effort on the right door and Derek on the left. They didn’t come easily, but at last, the release triggered, and the doors eased open.

  Derek shook out his hands. “They’ll send men out the front to circle around.”

  Caleb agreed. It was the obvious thing to do. “Radio Ray. Tell his people to expect it and keep them off us as long as they can.”